To make my ds revise for very small unserious tests at school

[Beingunreasonable]

i think he should revise for these tests despite them being small and insignificant. So I am forcing him to write notes about each subject over half term even though he has lots of notes already because that's how teachers teach them things. But I think he should do them anyway. And also I do know that he got straight a's last year in the more serious end of year tests. He is 14 and in year 9

No he will then know how to revise and have the stamina for GCSEs ....wish more parents would be as supportive.

yanbu if you want to have him alienated at a time he needs your support the most.

Really Pavlov ? We shouldn't encourage our kids to work incase it alienates them? It's our job to help, encourage, cajole, nag, whatever it takes, to get them to achieve their potential.

You need to teach them to organise themselves and want to do it for themselves. The ones that can't cope at university are the ones with parents who micro managed.

YANBU if he isn't getting massively stressed out over it and you're just teaching him the techniques for 'real' exams. The fuss and pressure over SATS when I was at school were incredible and they made no difference whatsoever to anything except the school league tables, but it would have been useful prep for GCSEs and A-Levels to take studying seriously.

YABU to force him, especially in the holidays. He should be enjoying his time away from school, not having a constant reminder of what awaits him when he goes back.

Point of fact, I used to have biweekly tests in a particular subject at GCSE. If we failed the test then we were made to stay in at lunch and redo it/write notes about it. Did it make me study harder? No! It made me more determined not to study and hate a subject I previously enjoyed and had picked as an option.

There are better ways to encourage knowledge retention. He may not even be someone who learns from making notes.

encourage is fine. 'make' him will alienate him. encourage, support, be positive, remind him of the positive success of previous hard work and if after all that he choses not to do it, then you can do no more.

The key is, as pointed out, to do whatever it takes to help them reach their potential. forcing someone to do something they do not want to do will not do that. It might do the opposite.

OP it does not sound like you have to do an awful lot to support his learning, as he appears to be doing very well already.

YABU - if he is getting straight As the he is fine without. GCSEs aren't that hard for some pupils. Also he should focus revision on any weaker subjects or those that need a bit of rote learning.

'force' - bad choice of words.

GCSEs have revision guides in WHS. If you know the board and spec, buy those (also there are recycled ones on eBay at a fraction of the price) really you can pass a GCSE just reading those.

You're not being unreasonable to make him revise.

You are being unreasonable to dictate to him how to revise.